Reliance to import 1.5 million tonne ethane from US

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is implementing a project to import 1.5 million tonne of ethane to feed its crackers in India, taking advantage of the US shale gas revolution.

“The project will significantly improve the long term competitiveness of our cracker portfolio through dedicated feedstock, enhanced margins, higher capacity and end-to-end integration. Reliance’s investments in shale gas and its existing crackers portfolio in India are a natural fit for sourcing ethane from North America and shipping it to India to attain long term feedstock competitiveness. The ships are expected to be delivered starting last quarter of 2016 in synchronisation with the readiness of terminal in North America,” the company said in a statement.

Reliance has executed storage and capacity agreements for liquefaction and export of ethane with a North American terminal, which is expected to commence operations in the second half of 2016, it said. RIL has also ordered six state-of-the-art very large ethane carriers (VLECs) which will be the largest vessels ever built in the world, it said.

Reliance is also building facilities in India for liquefied ethane and pipeline to deliver ethane to its crackers. According to the company, Reliance will be upgrading its crackers to maximise cracking of ethane, have maximum operational flexibility and capability to optimise feed stocks with complete control of supply chain.